VacationSelector
The Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town, Marbella
MarbellaThe Plaza de los Naranjos and its fountain in the old town
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Marbella by Décio Franchini, Pexels License; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Marbella or Tokyo?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Marbella for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Marbella’s own page.

Choose Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Marbella 76, Tokyo 40: Marbella leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Marbella 60, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Marbella 32, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Marbella 64, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Marbella 70, Tokyo 68: Marbella leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Marbella 77, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Marbella 70, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Marbella 38, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Marbella 58, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Marbella 30, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Marbella 30, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Marbella 52, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Marbella and Tokyo.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Marbella
55match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Marbella in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MarbellaTokyo

Where the figures come from

Marbella's temperatures are measured 40 km from the centre, at Malaga / Aeropuerto.

Marbella has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Marbella: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (39.7 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMarbellaTokyo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation22 m6 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)39 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMarbellaTokyo
City population159,78614,264,798
People per km²1,3986,501
Museums within 10 km6192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Marbella or Tokyo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.